Packaging my open source game with SFML questions

[justcolorado]

Hello,

    I have an almost finished game that I plan to publish shortly as open source.   It is my first game.   The project has been a lot of fun and I have really enjoyed working with the SFML library.  It is a great way to learn C++.  

    I am not looking for anyone to help me complete the game.  My reason for going open is that I want it to be available so that other programmers working on their first game can see how I did mine.  And it would be great to show it to some experienced programmers that can look at what I did and possibly help me improve my programming.

    My question is about including the SFML library in the source.  I would love it if anyone could download the source and as long as they are running visual studio it would just compile and run automatically.  But of course they wouldn't be able to unless they had SFML installed, and their linker set up the right way.  (SFML is the only library I have used for this game).  

     It took me two days and a few forum posts to figure out just how to set up my linker the right way, and to get all of the files in the right place.  Maybe I am just slow, but I imagine other beginners who downloaded my source would come across similar problems.

So my questions are:

Is it possible / and permissible to include the entire SFML library in the source along with my program in order to make it easier for me to share my program with others?  

If so, can someone give me a zipped folder of a Visual Studio project/solution that includes all of the SFML library, and all of the files automatically configured in the linker, and all of the .dll files placed in the runtime folder?

Thanks!

[Serapth]

SFML is released under perhaps the most permissive license in existence.

http://www.sfml-dev.org/license.php


With the following addition:

SFML - Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Laurent Gomila

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or
implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held
liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute
it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented;
   you must not claim that you wrote the original software.
   If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment
   in the product documentation would be appreciated but
   is not required.

2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such,
   and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.

3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any
   source distribution.


So basically, don't try to take credit for being the author of SFML, if you change the source to SFML in any way ( not derived products ), you need to make it clear you have altered SFML, and include the license details in your code.  

If so, can someone give me a zipped folder of a Visual Studio project/solution that includes all of the SFML library, and all of the files automatically configured in the linker, and all of the .dll files placed in the runtime folder?

The project files included at the end of each chapter of my C++/SFML tutorial  does exactly this.  It makes the project files a fair bit bigger, as all of SFML and the supporting libraries are included in each zip, but fortunately a new developer can simply download, unzip and double click the SLN file.

 
This particular zip file contains virtually no code, just a preconfigured project with SFML, libraries/DLLs compiled for VS 2010,  the linker and include settings configured properly, etc.  It weighs in at 8MB.  You can probably work from there as a base.


/EDIT:  On thing to be aware of, that code only configures the DEBUG build.  It's up to the user to go through the configuration process if they want a RELEASE build.  Although the instructions ( as described in part 1 ) are virtually identical for a release build.

[eXpl0it3r]

Loooong answer short: yes you can!  

SFML - Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Laurent Gomila

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or
implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held
liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute
it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented;
you must not claim that you wrote the original software.
If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment
in the product documentation would be appreciated but
is not required.

2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such,
and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.

3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any
source distribution.